However, there is something to build from, assistant coach Jim Playfair notes.

"It's better than where it was and it's got to continue to improve. It's the same with our penalty kill," Playfair said. "The thing that allowed us to be better on both our special teams (against Minnesota) was there were fewer penalties to deal with.

"In the history of our games, when we start killing off six, seven, eight penalties or try to go on the powerplay six, seven, eight times, it's a tough way to play the game."

Naturally, the question is: What was changed to improve the powerplay? Langkow said not a lot.

"I think we just stuck with what we were doing, keeping it simple and getting pucks to the net," he said.